The present invention relates in general to the tasks of manufacture and distribution of products that require packing or packaging in sets.
These sets are useful as business entities such as xe2x80x9cwholesale casexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9csales packagexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cmaster cartonxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cpalletxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9ccontainerxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cshipmentxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94sets where the content is based on the existence of identifiable units as members of known previously defined sets.
In illustration: An order can consist of multiple shipments. A shipment can consist of a number of truckloads. A truckload can consist of a number of pallets. A pallet consists of a number of master cartons. Each master carton contains of a number of sales packages. Each sales package contains a number of products.
In manufacturing and distribution, there is a continuing need for accuracy in the creation of these types of sets. The accuracy of business processes downstream from the creation point of the set is dependent upon the accuracy of the set created.
In the distribution of manufactured items, identifying codes, marks, symbols, or serial numbers, hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x98unit IDsxe2x80x99 are important in order to track products and customers. Sets and groupings of unit IDs are used in such core business functions as product version identification; customer identification; invoices, debits, credits, and adjustments, returned materials systems, repair, etc.
A business goal for manufacturers producing serialized products or products that require identities for business purposes is to create groupings of those products that are accurate. This essential accuracy in turn effects the accuracy of business operations and has far reaching business consequences such as on time delivery, the cost of doing business, customer satisfaction, and profitability. Inaccuracy in serialized product sets results in delay of delivery, re-packaging for accuracy, additional costs for labor, returned products and shipments, diminished customer satisfaction, confusion that must be sorted out, and erosion of profits. Accuracy in packing or packaging is important business.
These issues play out in a fairly ordinary and understandable set of circumstances on the shop floor as well as in customer service transactions with customers.
A useful number of items with unit IDs represented by devices that report the unit ID, marks, symbols, or serial numbers are identified as a set. That grouping, for example a xe2x80x9cmaster cartonxe2x80x9d, is recorded in a business system that includes a database. As in the case of its members, for that set there will be an identifying mark, symbol, or a device that will specify identity when it is recorded in the business system. In business practice, this set will then be contained in larger useful sets or recorded groupings such as those mentioned abovexe2x80x94pallet, shipment, order, etc.
The accuracy of packing or packaging the base set is of primary importance and it is that need that the present invention addresses.
According to the first embodiment of the principles of the present invention, a manufactured product is assigned and identified by a unique serial number or identifier. The identity of the item is displayed as the serial number, or encoded and represented by a symbol, on the unit, encoded into a component of the manufactured unit, encoded or stored in a device associted with the unit, or all of the above. All of these representations of the identity of the item can be retrieved or read.
According to the second embodiment of the principles of the present invention, the serialized product is marked with a unique identifier, a xe2x80x98unit IDxe2x80x99, and moves through a manufacturing and materials handling system to the point where it is required to be included in a larger business grouping. Preferably, this identification of a set of items occurs on the way to the point and before the grouping point the serialized items are packaged or packed as shippable units either by human hand or machine. The identity of the unit as a member of a set is recorded in a product database and the data is used for the business purposes stated above. Depending upon the design and methods of the materials handling system employed, the base unit is moved by some combination of transport, shipping, and conveyance to the point where the serialized product set is created. In the process the set is wrapped, labeled, or marked with some label, mark, written or recorded report or device that contains and provides access to the information concerning the identity of a single unit. This is true if the unit is a set of sets or a set of serialized or otherwise identifiable products.
According to the third embodiment of the principles of the present invention, devices are used to read the serialized identity expressed as a label, mark, written or recorded report. Examples of these devices are hand held or fixed mounted laser bar code symbol readers, machine vision cameras, or radio frequency devices. These devices read the information on part of the manufactured unit in the manufactured unit, or stored in a device attached to the manufactured unit. These devices can be one or more xe2x80x9creadersxe2x80x9d that together deliver the identities of the members of the set.
According to the fourth embodiment of the principles of the present invention the elements described above are configured to provide a business system with data of useful unit IDentities in groupings such as those mentioned above.
According to the fifth embodiment of the principles of the present invention, the unit IDs of the manufactured items, sets of those items, and supersets or groupings, are grouped. This set creation is accomplished by a process within which the identities of the items are ascertained en masse to provide a business system with data of useful unit identities in groupings such as those mentioned above. The reading and collection of the identities of the set members en masse is accomplished by one or more xe2x80x9creadingxe2x80x9d devices. The device or devices deliver the identities of the set members to the business system. This process may or may not include use of a computer depending upon the functionality of the reading device(s).
According to the sixth embodiment of the principles of the present invention the set size in number of units is controlled by the packaging, wrapping, or form that contains the set. The present invention provides the data which answers the following questions: (1) What is the identity of a manufactured item? (2) What are the identities of the members of a business process set for any level recorded by the business system.
The principles of the present invention are most particularly embodied by methods and systems used in set creation and recording of identifiable units into useful business sets.
In common practice and usage of the present day, useful business groupings created by counting out a number of units, establishing those specific items as a set, and packing or packaging them together with labeling that includes information of set identity. This method is derived from the practical handling of materials on conveyors. Items follow each other one at a time on an assembly line and operations are applied to items in a serial fashion. In this method the set identity is assigned prior to the point the items are grouped in a set.
The present invention is, in summary, a different and novel method of grouping the serialized or otherwise identifiable items into business system sets. Using the invented method, a materials handling system groups the items together in a physical package, wrapping, gig, form, or binding that determines the size in number of the set and then records the unit IDs of the set members en masse. In the case of the gig or form, the packaging is applied at the reading point or immediately thereafter. No set identification is created before the packing or packaging point according to the inventive principles. The recording of the set uses the devices mentioned above to record the identity information of each item and communicate the set membership information as data, picture, or any other useful symbology to the business system. This en masse method is in contrast to the prior art methods and systems that use sequential counting of items to assign members to a set. Moreover, this en masse read method works at every level of grouping and eliminates error in the creation of the groupings.
The practical advantage in the real world of the shop and packing floor of the inventive methods and systems is that within the set of units to be packed or packaged the units may be rearranged prior to being read en masse. For example a quality control person might take a unit off a packaging line for inspection and replace it later without the possibility of introducing inaccuracy. Or if a powered conveyor were to fail and access to the actual reading devices is blocked, then the packaging work that does not interfere with the read operation can continue uninterrupted. Packaged sets of units can be made in any order of units and set aside for future processing by the reading system when it is accessible. Additionally, this method has real world advantages in terms of error handling. When an error in the en masse read of a grouping occurs the grouping can be put aside for error definition and correction procedures and the work at hand continued since failing the set creation it is not a set and the manufactured units can be dispersed at will. Error conditions are discussed in detail below. This flexibility of handling coupled with accuracy is the huge advantage of the invented method and system over a counting based method.
This is in contrast to typical existing counting method where the set assignment occurs prior to the point that the units are actually physically grouped as a set. The members of the set must be maintained as a set in conveyance to the packing point. A quality control monitor cannot walk off with a member of the set after it has been read without either compromising accuracy or halting the packaging process. And the work at hand is not flexible, if the reading (counting) point is inaccessible then the entire work process comes to a halt.
The speed of the inventive en masse identity processing systems and methods also accommodate the serialization of consumer products that heretofore had not been serialized but for which a need for serialization had emergedxe2x80x94for instance cigarette packages or ammunition cartridges. At the packaging point for these small items, an optional marking device, for instance, a high-speed miniature printer or laser etcher, could assign serialized or batch markings to the items and that identity information stored in a product database. Later by reference to the markings and the product information important characteristics of the items can be ascertained. Questions such as origin of the unit; age of the unit; efficiency of the batch; history of the unit or batch; or whether tax; duties; or required fees were paid on the item or batch could be addressed assuming such information had been maintained within a system.
Systems and methods embodying the principles of the present invention provide substantial advantages over the prior art.